Amran Bronzes
In 1863, the British Museum in London acquired 28 cast bronze tablets discovered at cAmrān in what is now Yemen in the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsula. The text on the tablets is Sabaean, a dialect of South Arabic spoken in the ancient kingdom of Saba (biblical Sheba). The example shown here is a votive tablet that was probably placed in a temple as an offering to the Sabaean national god, Almaqah, described on the tablet as the god of Hirran. The tablet was dedicated in the first century BC by Riyan and his brothers, the grandsons of Marthad of the tribe of Dhu Amran.